Philippine President Duterte wins TIME’s 2017 most influential poll

President Rodrigo Duterte joins US Sen. Bernie Sanders and Russian President Vladimir Putin who won TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people reader poll in 2016 and 2015, respectively. File photo

MANILA, Philippines — His popularity has evidently reached the whole world as President Rodrigo Duterte claimed the top spot in TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people poll for 2017.

The feisty Philippine president received 5 percent of “yes” votes in the online poll that started in the last week of March and closed on Monday (Manila time). He was consistently leading the survey.

Duterte, who launched the bloody war against illegal drugs since claiming the presidency in July, got ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pope Francis, richest man in the world Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the survey. The four all got 3 percent of “yes” votes.

US Sen. Bernie Sanders and Russian President Vladimir Putin won the reader poll in 2016 and 2015, respectively.

In December 2016, Duterte was among the Most Powerful People list of Forbes Magazine where he landed in the 70th spot.